H. M. S. PINAFORE
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H.M.S. Pinafore was the opera then being rehearsed, and in that I made my first appearance. I played Hebe, a minor character in the opera as it stands now, but which was originally intended for a star part. Mrs. Howard Paul was to fill that role; she was an established favourite with the public, and had made many successful tours with companies of her own. Her connection with Gilbert and Sullivan had begun in The Sorcerer, in which she played Lady Sangazure. When she engaged herself for that part she stipulated that a young baritone who had been in her own company should also be engaged. This was Rutland Barrington, who, though inexperienced in stage work, made an outstanding
success in the part of Dr. Daly, and was afterwards chosen on his own merits to create the part of Captain Corcoran in Pinafore. Gilbert and Sullivan and D'Oyley Carte also wished to include Mrs. Howard Paul in their new opera, and I am sorry to say that I was partly but quite innocently the cause of this gifted actress ending her connection with them. She was not a very great singer, it is true, but she excelled as a performer, and could hold an audience for hours by her clever mimicry and solo sketches. In Pinafore as originally planned Hebe was to have had a very good part, giving her scope for interpolation and various "turns" of her own, a latitude which was never afterwards allowed to any member of the company. Her voice had become unequal to the strain of taking part in the arias and the concerted music of the piece, it was necessary that another member of the company should fill the gap, and for that purpose I was engaged. Then came the storm. When Mrs. Howard Paul was told that a certain Miss Jessie Bond, an untried new-comer, was to be so nearly associated with herself, her dignity was up in arms. What--a nonentity to be put in a position of such prominence! She was so offended that she walked out of the theatre then and there, and refused to take any part in the opera. That was distinctly a blow for Gilbert and Sullivan, for I was quite without stage experience, and had stipulated from the first that I should have no talking to do, only singing parts. Hebe's share in the dialogue had to be cut out entirely, and with it all the "turns" and impromptus that were to have helped out the play. In this way it came about that Pinafore was never the full-length production that its creators had intended, a leading character had to be turned into a subordinate one, and the wonder is that in its shortened form the merry piece has such balance and brightness. Of course all this was quite unknown to the public, and perhaps my account of the occurrence is the only one on record.
From "The Life and Reminiscences of Jessie Bond, The Old Savoyard, as Told by Herself to Ethel MacGeorge," London, John Lane The Bodley Head Limited, 1930.
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